Samsung, the world's second largest cell phone maker, recently launched one of its second generation smart phones that received the crown for the world's fastest PDA - Samsung i730, the successor of i700 Windows Mobile Pocket PC device. Aimed at business professionals, this new ultra-convergence device is running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 OS, it is equipped with Windows Media Player 10 software and supports 3G 1xEVDO data, such as that being offered by Verizon and planned by Sprint PCS. With connectivity like that, the fully equipped QWERTY keyboard, that is beautifully revealed when sliding down the bottom half of the device, can really be put to good use, especially since the i730 has a reasonable 64 MB of RAM for applications and an SDIO memory card slot for expansion.
The most spectacular feature of Samsung i730 is the way it slides along a seam in the midpoint of the device to reveal the keyboard that can be hidden behind the screen when not in use. Because of that, the blue oval-shaped keys are narrow and cramped enough that - at first glance - the keyboard looks unusable. But after spending a few minutes taking it for a test drive, you'll find out it works surprisingly well; besides, the nice-looking sliding-down keyboard makes it one of the most compact Samsung mobile phones, that can easily fit inside a suit pocket!
Samsung i730 smartphone incorporates Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities to facilitate data exchange with other devices, it also allows you to use a set of accessories like car and home chargers, battery extenders, keep it protected with waterproof and watertight cases, thus allowing you to take it anywhere on a holidayor long-term business trip.
But even potentially without the Wi-Fi support and its included accessories, the i730 has a lot going on. The smartphone gains an advantage over other Samsung mobile phones by including a 1.3 megapixel camera (in some versions) with a sliding lens cover, a large, 2.8. diagonal QVGA 65k colour display that is also bright and easily viewed from an angle, also the built-in stereo-speakers with simelated 3D sound that should add a bit of fun to what is obviously a representative of the business-oriented Samsung mobile phones.
Other nice touches of the i730 include voice recognition technology that lets users dial numbers, find contacts and open applications simply by speaking commands. In addition to offering an antire set of call-management features, including caller-ID, voice mail, call forwarding and call waiting, the phone includes an integrated speaker phone that lets users enjoy hands-free conversations.
The company provided a set of software tools for the new i730 that were not present in the previous samsung phones. These tools give owners access to Pocket PC editions of familiar business programs, thus making it possible to read documents in the popular MS-Office format using MW and Excel (you can also use the Picsel Browser to zoom in and out documents and move them around the screen to view smaller sections - new feature!), view various presentations in PowerPoint and send or receive emails using a standard Outlook email account and an Internet service provider. Moreover, the centrally located navigation control features four directional buttons that users can assign to their favourite functions. For example, these directional keys could be used to launch frequently used programs like Pocket Word, Excel, or various Messengers installed on your Pocket PC.
The facts that make the i730 one of the smartest Samsung mobile phones are:
- Its transcriber function that lets users enter entire words and sentences simply by writing them on the touch-sensitive screen. Offering support for several writing styles, the hand-writing recognition software automatically converts handwritten notes into text characters.
- The information-management application that sends a back-up copy of all user generated data to the phone's flash memory. Up to 86,39 MB of personal information can be safely stored in this manner, even if other handset hardware fails or the unit's battery becomes completely drained
- The remote control that automatically sets up your device to remotely control a sub-set of TVs, VCRs, DVDs, Audio, and other (which was designed to let you control other portable devices with IR ports).
All in all, Samsung i730 is a great device, whose overall features and functionality will save you so much time and headaches! Available from the first quarter of 2005, the SCH-i730 offers just about everything a professional might need in a smartphone.